If You Really Love Someone
by GleeGeneration23
Summary: The story of how Alice and Cyrus fell in love as told by both of them during those months in Wonderland before their adventures, before the Red Queen and before Jafar. Told from both point of views.
1. Cyrus-The Becoming

**Hello, here is another story and another leap into the Once Upon A Time In Wonderland fandom for me. I really enjoy the Alice/Cyrus relationship and this is my spin on how they got together pre the series. If you like it then please leave a review.**

 **I expect this story to be ten chapters each with a different point of view and while i do take some liberties (for example Cyrus being in Wonderland before some years ago and Alice's background and surname) most of this should be related to the scenes that we do see in the flashbacks such as when Alice and Cyrus first meet.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing in here is mine all of it belongs to someone else.**

 **And please do let me know what you think, i hope to have another chapter up soon.**

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If You Really Love Someone

The story of how Alice and Cyrus fell in love as told by both of them during those months in Wonderland before their adventures, before the Red Queen and before Jafar. Told from both point of views.

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Chapter 1-Cyrus-The Becoming

 _Events_ -Cyrus in the aftermath of Alice becoming his new mistress, their first night together and the stirrings of something believed to be long dead.

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He couldn't stop looking at her. Little glances whenever he thought she wasn't looking at him, occasionally stumbling like a fool so that she would reach out and touch him just that little _bit more_. If his brothers were here they would laugh at him right now…trying so desperately to not pretend that in the few short moments since this girl…no this woman (because that was undeniably what she was) had stumbled into his life he had been so desperately affected.

But she was without a shadow of a doubt the most beautiful woman he had ever laid eyes on. He had over the course of his centuries as boy and genie more than his fair share of sexual relations. This was not his first mistress and he had regarded them as something in his contract. Something that meant he didn't have to go back in his bottle for one night. He did not believe that there had been any discussion of feelings, all of them, the women before had been a means almost to an end that was never in sight.

But Alice…Alice was something else entirely. Alice was golden in a way that every other member of the female sex he had seen were a common mix of pewter and lead. When she had climbed through the bottle top he had noticed her beauty but it was when she had started speaking that her had noted how she simply shone.

Even now the concept of her using her three wishes and sending him onwards hurt more than he cared to admit and the relief that he had felt when she had declared herself unmarried was such that he had almost been alarmed by how quickly he had opened himself to her presence.

He swallowed again and decided to focus on walking. It would do no good for him to focus his attention on something that could not happen. Despite the fact that she was struggling to prove herself and he couldn't help but find that endearing he knew it would do no good to get attached. Soon he would be gone and she would be a memory that he suspected he would pull out at the darkest hours of the loneliest nights.

"So where should we go?" Alice said her voice like bells cutting through his musing. Cyrus was more than ashamed to say he jumped like some sort of lusting idiot but he couldn't help herself, she had brushed her hair forwards and a little bit of it was brushing his shoulders. He was suddenly gripped with the urge to touch it and had to force himself to remember that he was not a free man anymore-he was a slave almost to every whim this woman had.

Oddly enough however he found that rather appealing which really did just go to show how deluded he was sometimes. Being alone made him crave human company more and Alice…well he might have only just met her but she was turning out to be surprising him every second he was with her.

Then he realised that she was staring at him and he was staring at her with…well somewhat impure thoughts. He gave himself a mental kick and then forced himself to speak not really trusting himself to look her in the eyes but unable to deny himself another legitimate glance at the woman.

What was it about her that made her so breath taking? He had never felt like this before of that he was sure off and it was rather unnerving to say the least.

"I suggest we go to a little watering hole I know and…get to know each other more?" oh he could have kicked himself for that, he had tried to be chivalrous and yet somehow his attempt at romance had come across as awkward and old fashioned. Alice however did not seem bothered by this and nodded smiling that big wide smile again that made her eyes sparkle.

* * *

The Caterpillar's hole was a dark and dingy kind of place and Cyrus the last time he had been in Wonderland (and that had to be about one hundred years ago give or take a time frame that both he and Wonderland tried so desperately to ignore) had hated being there because everyone looked at him like an object to be taken at a whim. Genies were rare and therefore coveted and it was not the sought of place he wanted to go back willingly too but as far as drinking holes were this was one of the few that had a reputation for not killing the customers if they didn't pay.

He was right about the looks though. Alice was wide-eyed when she saw the people gathered there. He imagined that this was not the sought of place a little girl went to which had been the first time she had told him as they walked-she had come to this place. He dusted off a chair and held it out for her glaring at a couple of traders as they leered at them.

Again-this was not the type of place where…respectable women went alone.

Alice either didn't see the looks she was being given or she did a wonderful job of ignoring them. Cyrus got them both two glasses of wine and wondered how they should bring the conversation around to the wishes. He was basking in her company like a plant denied sunlight and he was sure that if she prolonged this…whatever this was (and he knew what this couldn't be he wasn't that arrogant) was over it would be marginally easier for him if she let him go now rather than keeping him stringing along desperate to lay down in the wake that was Alice.

"Sorry" he said sitting down finally. "Being a genie is a bit like being a wanted man"

"Everyone wants you" Alice said finally her smile just as bright. Cyrus nodded. Well, it wasn't that everyone wanted him it was that he suspected one person wanted him. He remembered the look of terror on his last masters face as he knew that something evil was stalking his lands looking for the genie that was granting wishes.

He nodded and then looked down at his hands. He had a sheet of magic paper picked up from one travel to another and he fumbled with it folding it to distract him from sinking into this conversation. He was so starved for this woman's touch and this woman's words that he knew his heart, so long closed and shrivelled was slowly becoming more and more open to the possibility that she might stay around with him as a companion and that he might enjoy that possibility.

He folded the paper intently. He had learnt a long time ago how to do it by memory and he found his fingers flying over the creases and the well-worn corners. While some masters had demanded he pay attention to the little intricacies that were there every demand some had just left him in a bottle and he had been forced to make his own amusement in order not to go completely mad with boredom.

He looked down realising he had been distracted. He had made a rose. Well he thought handing the paper over to a delighted smile that made his stomach do something very strange indeed and then he decided that they should leave. The Caterpillar was asleep but soon he would wake up and start smoking his pipe and then he would begin to notice his arrivals. Alice might not have crossed paths with him or perhaps she had-he didn't think it important enough to tell her but he knew from his own experience in Wonderland those many years ago that it was probably for the best that someone as stunning as Alice leave before the biggest trader in Wonderland woke up and wondered if there was anything worth selling for a price.

"Shall we go for a little walk?" he asked and then he remembered that it was polite to re-offer his arm again. He had been raised as a gentleman and unlike his brothers when it had come to the girls that he had grown up with he had been rigid in following the rules his long-gone Papa had taught him to abide by.

"Of course" Alice beamed. "But it's getting dark…err…do you have a place to stay I…I wasn't planning on being here long enough to stay but…I don't suppose you leave your bottle under a hedge most nights"

No he didn't and also…it had been a long time since he was out of the bottle. Most masters didn't want to draw attention to the fact that they had a genie for fear of reprisals and therefore more often than not Cyrus was back in the bottle most nights. This would be the first night where he had the chance of seeing the stars above the half purple skies of Wonderland and would be able to breath in a breeze instead of hot dusty air.

And anyway. Leaving a bottle under a hedge with both he and Alice in it was dangerous in the extreme. Plenty of people could pick it up and then they would be in real trouble. As soon as Alice made her wishes they could…he could be sent to another master and all would be well again or at least he would try to. Like he had already quickly learnt there was something about this woman that made his heart beat a little faster and the charm that he had relied upon for so long fail completely and utterly until he became nothing but a stuttering almost shell of a man.

But he had also never slept under the stars with a lady before.

Well, at least not a respectable one.

"I would like to sleep under the stars tonight if that is amendable to you?" Cyrus asked finally. "It is a rather warm night and while the woods might be dangerous I know of some places we can rest with a fire."

Alice was silent for a moment and Cyrus was sure that he had offended her. He could have kicked himself for all the good it would do. He might not know much about Alice's background other than the fact that her father was clearly some sort of idiot but she was clearly the type of woman that did not go sleeping in the woods on hard ground with a man that she had just met hours earlier.

He peeped at her wondering if she was angry. In truth she did not look it but Cyrus was unsure. He didn't have much experience with women to tell the truth.

"If you would prefer some shelter you could sleep in my bottle…" oh that did sound very wrong did it not? "I mean…err…if you wanted to sleep alone, I will guard it with my life"

Alice turned to look at him then her expression almost one of amusement. "I don't mind sleeping under the stars with you Cyrus" she said sweetly even as her cheeks flushed the most delightful shade of pink.

Cyrus's traitorous heart skipped a beat to that response. There was a pause where they stood there on the yellow pathway staring at each other and then Alice inclined her head and Cyrus remembered that as far as the woods were concerned he was the one that probably knew where they were going so he nodded and led them towards a dense thicket of trees where he knew it was safe from some of the more…unpleasant creatures that roamed these woods.

Alice smiled at him as she made herself ready for bed. They put the rabbit in the lamp which Cyrus took to mean that if he did make it out the bag his home would be ruined tomorrow but all thoughts of that went out of his head when he turned to see Alice lying down her legs crossed over her dress and her hands curled under her chin, her hair loose and flowing around her shoulders. Before he knew what he was doing he found his hand had reached out almost of his own accord and he could see it was close to touching Alice's hair.

He snatched it back feeling his cheeks burn, he didn't need to know he told himself sternly-how soft it felt under his fingers or what it would feel like to have it draped over his hand or weather or not it smelled like the paper rose he had given Alice.

Cyrus was ultimately his father's son and his father had raised him to have the utmost respect for woman, not to chase after them like a randy dog on heat. So instead he curled his hands into a fist and lay back and watched the stars twinkle in the half light purple and the half dark purple sky that was night time in Wonderland.

He thought he heard soft breathing beside him but he resolutely kept his eyes on the sky. He thought to himself that this was the first night that he was outside breathing in good clean fresh air for a long time but he couldn't enjoy…not really.

His heart, the long ago thing he had discarded when his own stupidity had cast him to this life gave another traitorous thud at the thought of the woman that would be his mistress.

 _Mistress Mine_ , he thought to himself ironically. _Thy will is mine._

Cyrus was beginning to think when it came to Alice truer words had never been spoken.

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 **And there it is. Next chapter will show some events from Alice's point of view.**

 **Please review if you like. **


	2. Alice-Heat and Light

**Hi, so here is another chapter, i apologise for the lateness of this chapter but i had a nightmare of an essay to write and everything else took a kind of backseat.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.**

 **This story will be ten chapters long and have alternating points of view so keep that in mind.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

* * *

If You Really Love Someone

The story of how Alice and Cyrus fell in love as told by both of them during those months in Wonderland before their adventures, before the Red Queen and before Jafar. Told from both point of views.

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Chapter 2-Alice-Heat and Light

 _Events_ -Alice's point of view of her new friend, her doubts about her father and her knowledge that she must send Cyrus on his way in order to get back home.

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She was finding it hard to look. She had always been taught that modesty was a woman's greatest virtue. A modest woman looks down rather than gaze at a man and a modest woman does certainly not sleep under the stars with men she has only met an hour or so ago. A woman, a decent woman would have took Cyrus's offer up to sleep in the bottle and a decent woman most certainly would not have entertained the idea of curling up in a blanket next to a strong man for any reason other than survival and warmth.

But she couldn't help it. For the first time in her life Alice found herself attracted to a man that she had met and it was a new feeling. She had thought that whenever she was eventually accepted back into her family she would marry a man of her father's choosing. She had not wanted that but she knew that it was unfair to leave him thinking she was dead a second time when she had willingly chosen to go back to Wonderland this time. She wanted her acceptance that this world she had grown up in was real-that she was not insane. She was struggling to survive in the 1800s. The Queen was on the throne, her father had wanted to give her a strong and dependable husband and considering all she had put him through Alice had considered the options and thought why not? It wasn't like there was going to be any wild adventures in England anyway. It was 1842 for pity's sake.

But first she had to prove that she wasn't mad.

And that was what had led her to this predicament.

Or more importantly…

Cyrus.

Even now sleeping upon the ground with a blanket he had fished out of the bottle she still couldn't let her eyes fall shut and her body relax even though every bone ached for rest. She stared up at the purple sky that changed into the deep blue peppered with golden stars and she tried to force herself to relax. Whenever her hands had brushed against him in some such way she had felt almost overcome. Alice had found herself greedy for more of Cyrus's little touches but he was either too much a gentlemen to press upon her advances or he was too much a gentlemen to even comment on them and both were a tad humiliating to say the least.

Not for the first time she wished that she had someone there to tell her what to do. She tried to roll over and fall asleep but even though the ground was comfortable and the blanket impossibly soft she couldn't. She turned to see Cyrus with his back to her firmly separating the two of them though weather that was intentional or not she wasn't sure.

Alice bit her lip again thinking hard worrying the skin between her teeth. It had been a nervous habit since childhood-since her mother had died if she was being completely honest with herself. She didn't know what to do. She found that she didn't want to go home. To be honest she never had. Home was something she had to do it felt, almost like a chore she had to complete. Her father was remarried by now she was sure, perhaps he even had other children, besides, the two of them had never gotten on and there was more than enough mistrust and frustration on both sides. Alice was unsure how she would ever be able to go back to a life of society dinners, balls and afternoon tea's in café's and being told about all the prosperous young men that were out there.

She wanted something real. More to the point the only place that she had ever felt like herself was here in Wonderland. And what was the point in staying in Wonderland when it was becoming more and more clear to everyone including herself that the magic this world ran on could spit you back out of the world whenever it wanted to.

There was a pause where she stated again at the stars. She wanted to be adventurous, she wanted to be bold and brazen. Alice had never been one of those girls that women in her world looked up to, the kinds that never spoke without being spoken to and then it was only about the simplest of subjects.

Well she thought wryly. She was doing that right now alright.

That still didn't change her predicament. She liked Cyrus, she enjoyed the company of someone who understood her for the first time in her life-and that was certainly what it felt like. She found herself thinking hard about what to do next. She was now in possession of three wishes and a very handsome genie that came with them and then when they were gone, so was he.

A part of her wanted to use them now. She couldn't deny that anymore than she could deny to herself that she thought Cyrus a handsome man. She wanted to use these wishes to keep the peace and harmony in her home. She wanted to use them for her independence and a small selfish part of her wondered if she might perhaps break the ever so important laws of magic and bring back her mother and win over her father's love regardless of weather or not that was wrong-but the thought even after she had considered her options-even after she had only known him for a few hours-of letting Cyrus go from her side was nothing short of sickening.

And that was where Alice got both confused and a tad emotional. She could not keep this man forever, she could not force him to be by her side. She knew that, that might be a way a lot of masters or mistresses used their genies but that was not what she wanted to do. She wanted Cyrus to stay by her side because he wanted to be with her. Even having known him for such a short time she was still desperate to get to know him more, to talk to him more and more and to spend time with him. Her hands were burning with his touch and she felt something like an ache deep inside of her. This was stupid she told herself sternly. She had known this man for five minutes. She was not some stupid little girl who fell in love at the first drop of a hat or at a smile. She came from a world where such a thing was forbidden and Alice was many things but she was no fool. And with that stern warning to herself she turned on her side and fell into an uneasy but nonetheless deep sleep.

* * *

She woke up in the morning to the birds singing through the trees. She forced her sleepy eyelids open and leaned against the trees trying to gather her thoughts, she was hungry and privately while she had enjoyed last night her back was screaming at her to find a bed for the night. Too many nights she had slept in the cool forests and that was nice but she was desperate for cool sheets and a hot bath and probably a good hot meal to boot. Either way she stretched feeling her bones and her muscles contract and detract and she forced herself to brush her hands through her hair. The Lord only knows what Cyrus would do whenever he woke up and saw her with leaves and twigs out of the birds nest that was her hair. She forced herself to calm down.

Also Alice thought looking down at her stained skirt. It wouldn't do to grab some new clothes. Perhaps some trousers that might make climbing through the undergrowth with a man more respectable. She wasn't sure what she was going to do with her wishes but she was damn sure that she wasn't going to use them today and that meant that she had Cyrus's company to contend with. This might be the perfect excuse to get her emotions under control.

Actually this might be the perfect excuse to get her body under control because even looking at Cyrus's sleeping back and the way his hair was ruffled by the ground was sending her heart beating in a to a rather unnatural rhythm.

The sun however was coming up and soon Alice knew they would be discovered either by the neighbouring villagers or by the animals that roamed the forest but she was loath to wake him. She couldn't see his face but she could imagine that he must look peaceful looking like that. So innocent even in sleep and she found she wanted to take the blanket that he had given her and then curl up next to him his back against her stomach so that he could turn over…

She stopped herself before she got to that point. She bit her lip looking away, she had only known this man for a day, there was no need for her stomach to do a waltz whenever she thought about him. She forced herself to breath in and out. She had to wake Cyrus up and ask him what the plan was, she had to get new clothes for her old ones were too muddy, she had to make a decision about that damn rabbit and she had to while she was on a decision making streak here-have to make herself look presentable. Alice didn't know much about the rules in Wonderland but if it was anything like her own world she imagined staggering into a town with a rather ravishing looking genie bearing all the signs of camping outside sharing blankets, wouldn't go over very well.

She leaned over and then placed her hand on Cyrus's shoulder. He jolted awake as soon as her hand met his skin which was hot to the touch as if his skin ran hot. Maybe that had something to do with the magic that was clearly running through his veins? Or maybe she was just imagining things?

He turned around on his side his whole body bumping against her bare knees and she had to look around-a force of habit that she longed to ignore-to make sure that nobody saw them like this-in some sort of sordid embrace, regardless of both how much she wanted it and how insane it was for her to even consider it.

By the time that she had turned around the heat and the light was gone from Cyrus's eyes but she wasn't sure if she had imagined it or if she had just looked at him and seen something that wasn't there but was her own desperate thoughts-as if she wanted to be the reason there was a spark in Cyrus's eyes when obviously there was not.

She forced a smile onto her face. She was Alice, she was used to pretending that everything was alright when the truth was it wasn't. Back in her little cottage, her little world, it had been a full time occupation.

"What would you like to do today?" Cyrus asked suddenly breaking the silence. Alice considered and then decided almost without thinking the one thing that she wanted to do.

"Is there some place where I can take a bath?"

A strange expression came over Cyrus's face for a second but then it was gone and his steady smile was back.

"Of course" he stood up brushing down his pants and then held out his hand, Alice took it ignored the sparks in her stomach, the heat of his skin and that dizzying need that came when she looked him directly in the eyes and then followed him out of the woods.

(She had a feeling she knew what this was but she wouldn't say it. Not yet. Not when it was impossible, not when it was clear that it wouldn't work out.)

* * *

 **And the next chapter will be from Cyrus's point of view and will hopefully be here much quicker.**

 **And let me know what you think, thank you so far for all your kind reviews. **


	3. Cyrus-Inner Beauty

**Hi, so here is another chapter, thank you all so much for your kind reviews and i do apologise for it being so late in updating, and my work load has been increasing as my uni year has increased. I do hope the next chapter will be up sooner rather than later but i do appreciate all of you who have been waiting for this chapter.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine just this plotline. The headcannon surrounding Cyrus's relationship with his former masters and mistresses as well as the headcannon surrounding his father. **

**Please Read and Review and let me know what you think.**

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If You Really Love Someone

Chapter 3-Cryus-Inner Beauty

 _Events-_ Cyrus tries to get himself under control as he and Alice see an opportunity meanwhile he tries to think of something… _anything_ …that will keep her company before she uses her wishes.

* * *

They had walked for miles, but it didn't seem like it. Alice was surprisingly strong and able to keep up with him and Cyrus was for once glad to be out in the open air. The last time he had been in Wonderland so many years ago the realm was still taking shape and after months trapped in a bottle in a desert it was nice to feel the breeze upon your face and something other than sand under your feet.

But he could still feel it in every crevice of his body. Sand. Sometimes it reminded him of his home. Of his mother. Of his brothers. Of the sand that was everywhere even in your bed. Sometimes it was comforting. Sometimes it was downright painful, but mostly it was uncomfortable.

Alice was currently looking down at her clothes. Her skirt was mostly in one piece but it was getting more and more obvious that her shirt had seen better days and the mud on her stockings was getting worse. Hopefully the clothes horse would be around at some point and then they could change. He wondered briefly how Alice would pay for them, would she use one of her wishes? Cyrus remembered how it felt when someone used them, like your heart was being squeezed through a vice as a part of the bond that tethered you to your master was forced away.

He forced himself to breath in again and thought of his father. When his father had died his mother had been distraught. The three of them, the three brothers had been sharing a room at that time and when the illness had took his father Cyrus had crawled into his oldest brothers bed and felt his two brothers curl around him protecting him desperately from the outside world. They had done that nearly all their lives and now they had been punished-punished or killed or what not and Cyrus had always hated himself for that.

But his father had been the one that had told him when he found that woman that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with then he would know about it. It was a feeling as he had called it. A feeling that your life wouldn't make sense without that other person in it and Cyrus who had been around the genie bottle with both masters and mistresses knew painfully that once Alice used her wishes (and use them she must) then they would perhaps never see each other again and that-even having only been in her company for at least a day and a half Cyrus could already envision himself not being able to get over the loss of Alice.

Damn.

They reached a small path in the road and Alice stopped suddenly pulling Cyrus out of his rather depressing thoughts and sending him crashing into the back of her. There was a second where he was suddenly assaulted with the scent of Alice's hair, soft in his face and smelling like rose water and a deliciously buttery golden brown colour. Cyrus had a sudden urge to stick his face in that hair and breath in the smell until he was so drunk over it he would never smell anything again.

The second thing that happened was that her arse connected beautifully with his legs and more importantly the thing in between them that had long since been dormant.

Mores the pity.

But he was surprised suddenly trying desperately to combat the arousal that had shot through him so strong that he thought he might just sink to his knees there and then beg Alice to use him like his other mistresses had in the past.

Alice had not turned around and Cyrus was wondering if…finally…she had thought of something to use her first wish on when she turned around so that they were nose to nose. He could see every individual fair eyelash and he was suddenly very aware that if he so much as leaned forwards an inch he would be kissing those very kissable lips that were in a perfect cupid's bow.

Oh fuck…

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

This was different than anything he had endured before. Of that he was sure of.

He bit his lip and he thought he saw a spark of something in her eyes for a second. Something like desire.

But he had to be imagining it surely?

Just when Cyrus had told himself that he was his father's son and he should behave himself in a gentlemanly fashion and take a step back before he behaved unseemly Alice tilted her head to the side and then grinned at him.

"Can you hear that?"

Cyrus paused straining his ears and forcing his teeth down onto the skin of his lip in order to control himself from saying anything that could be considered inappropriate. There was a pause and then he grinned because he could hear it. He could hear what had so obviously fixated on.

She turned and ran then through the trees and Cyrus followed bottle in one hand and bag with the still squirming rabbit in another.

They came into a little clearing and then he could see the waterfall with the pool underneath it. It was one of those hidden treasures of Wonderland that gave the place it's name. Cyrus grinned thought it was more to himself than to Alice. It had been so long since he had had a good wash, he had been in one shithole of a place and then another and he could still feel sand under his fingernails. Sinking into the cool water and letting it lap at his skin and finally managing to wash his hair seemed too good to be true.

"Fancy a swim?" Alice asked. If Cyrus had managed to tear his eyes away from the water then he would have seen the nerves flicker across her face. It would have been the first kind of negative emotion that she had expressed in his presence but he was too fixed on the water. If he had looked he would have seen Alice bit her own lip and then make up her mind on what she wanted to do. But he didn't so when he turned around he saw Alice throwing caution to the wind (though he wouldn't know it yet for some time) and unbuttoning her blouse.

If you had asked Cyrus there and then at that moment in time what he was thinking as he saw Alice's thin corset under her blouse, the creamy flesh exposed to him and the way she bent to pull of her stockings he honestly couldn't tell you.

She did keep her skirt on something Cyrus infinitely grateful for because if she had taken that off as well then he might have done something ungentlemanly like, like…throw Alice up against the nearest tree and kiss her senseless. Gods above, only a day and a half in this woman's company and he was already going mad. They had chatted somewhat as they had been walking and while she was coy with the details he was cataloguing every bit of information she gave him like some sort of starving animal at the grandest feast in the realm.

If his big brothers could see him now.

"Why not" he said after working his throat. "You get in and I'll come and join you once I find a place to hide the bag and the bottle"

Alice nodded and scrapped her hair upwards with some spare twine. This Cyrus decided did not help in the slightest. Now he could see the elegance of her neck where (he was ashamed to admit the little guilty leap of pleasure he felt when he imagined it) it would be delightfully easy to leave his mark, and he could also see the small freckles on her shoulders, the curve of her breasts were more defined in the corset she was wearing and without another comment he leapt into the shrubbery like an out of control teenager and did not come out for ten minutes and did not look Alice in the eye the entire time they were in the water.

Once Alice had climbed out, her hair mostly dry and Cyrus had decided it was better for everyone including himself if he stayed in the water for a bit longer she said something about the clothes horse and disappeared. Considering the clothes horse was something Cyrus didn't need and Alice clearly did he tilted his head back in the water and watched the dark purple sky slowly becoming darker and darker as the day went by. He pulled himself out of the lake wrapped his shirt around him in some sort of a makeshift blanket, laid his wet hair on the grass and then without warning, felt his eyelids go heavy and he fell fast asleep.

* * *

When he woke the sky had turned dark and he was warm surprisingly. One of the blankets from his bottle had been wrapped over him, the thick wool soft around him. He forced his eyes open to see the warmth of a fire and something stewing in a pot. Alice was prodding the fire with a stick. She didn't know he was awake yet and Cyrus took the opportunity to admire her again committing every new change to memory. She had changed into a pair of long pants that he knew without even managing to get the exact angle would frame her backside perfectly. She was wearing a loose pink and white shirt and a belt around her waist and while her hair was down Cyrus noticed that she had managed to snag a few ribbons in case she needed to tie it back.

Alice turned then and saw him staring. She had caught him out but she didn't say anything. Cyrus pushed himself up onto his elbow and he forced himself to smile and pretend that even though he was clean every bone in his body was aching and he was struggling to control his raging hormones whenever he was around this woman.

He couldn't understand what was happening, he had been in Alice's company for a shorter time than he had most mistresses and already he got the feeling that if she asked to use him like some of the other mistresses that had commanded his bottle had, (and he would hold up his hands and say that sometimes he had wanted to crawl out of his bottle and into a warm bed and to be touched and held with some degree of comfort) then even here and now he would lie on his back, raise his hands in surrender, spread his legs and let her take him until she tired of him.

(He might not recover when she was done with him but Cyrus got a feeling that even if Alice used all three wishes in the next hour he wouldn't recover from her leaving him here alone)

"I managed to snag something from the clothes horse that we could eat" Alice said turning her attention to the broth that she was stirring. "He said it was rabbit but I'm not quite sure. To be honest I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with my rabbit"

She turned and gave him a long look from under her eyelashes. "I suppose you must think very badly of me? For stripping in front of you and insisting you swim with me"

Cyrus laughed. "That" He said truthfully and before he could stop the words tumbling out of his mouth. "Was one of the best afternoons I have ever had in a long time"

There was a moment where she stared at him for a second and then Alice grinned. "I want to see this realm in full" she said firmly. "I want to see it all and I want you to come with me…and no that's not a wish. I…err…I just enjoy your company, Cyrus, you're the first person that I want to spend time with…the first person that I…that makes me feel safe and whole again"

Cyrus stared at her. He could feel all the feelings that he had suppressed for so long bubbling to the surface. My God he thought to himself forcing himself not to think about anything that would make him want to cry, forcing himself not to think about weather or not this was a declaration that she wouldn't use her wishes or what it would be like when she inevitably did. This woman he thought bitterly was beautiful both inside and out and he would be damned if he didn't drink up every second that he could be in her presence.

But he was full of self loathing as it was of that he knew. Alice would move on, they all moved on in the end. But he decided he might as well live in the moment. His heart was mangled enough for well over two lifetimes in a bottle for it to be mangled any more.

But right now he didn't care. Right now all he cared about was that this woman that made him feel whole again for the first time in a long time was watching him with wide eyes filled with hope and he was sure as the skies above him were dark not going to disappoint.

"Of course I will"

And he was rewarded with another glorious smile.

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 **Next chapter will probably be this scene and a little bit more from Alice's POV. **

**And let me know what you think, i will try and update as soon as i can. **


	4. Alice-Half Empty Half Full

**Hi, everyone here is another chapter. I am hoping to do another update before my exams however they do come first so I might not be able to update until after May, however I will do a multiple update before I go on holiday anyway so don't worry.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

 **And to anyone doing exams like me good luck.**

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If You Really Love Someone

Chapter 4-Alice-Half Empty-Half Full

 _Events_ -Alice comes to an agreement with herself (even if it is a bit premature) and makes one of the most daring decisions of her life-or essentially Alice's point of view of the previous chapter.

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She needed to bathe. Consciously Alice was aware that she had been trapped in this world for nearly a weak on her own so far which meant that she had not had chance to even pull of her boots in that time. She needed to bathe, wash her hair and then she desperately needed a change of clothes.

Usually she wouldn't be worried by these facts. When she had been a child she had seen most of this world in her blue frock and apron and she had been more than prepared to do it again however now there was a problem cutting into that fact.

Cyrus.

For the first time in her life Alice didn't want to be dirty or strong or brave. She had fought back in her own world for a time where women could be whatever they wanted, as a child she had wanted to play outdoors and ruin her dress and get twigs and leaves in her hair playing make believe battles like the boys not sit indoors with her embroidery like so many other girls her own age. She had once stumbled across an article the maid had kept hidden about the women who were fighting by whatever means necessary to win the vote and that had seemed at the time rather daring.

Wonderland had seemed rather daring in the beginning both as a child when everything had been bright and shiny and run under a king that might have been lazy and incompetent but did not tax his people into corruption and starvation. From what Alice could understand here and now as a young women another young women held the throne of this realm and the world was very different.

When she had first arrived here she had stumbled across the little clearing with the waterfall coming out from the rocks and the warm water that seemed to never get cold and she had used it as a place for bathing and sometimes drinking. And she wanted to strip of her clothes until she was naked and sink into the water never to rise again.

But then there was Cyrus. Which led her to her current predicament.

If Alice was a little braver nothing would stop her debate as they continued through the dense forest. If she was as brave as those women who had thrown bricks through windows or the poor people who had took to the streets to protest in favour of a decent wage then she would have found no issue with stripping naked and taking Cyrus by the hand into that damn pool.

However, however long her time with her mother had been cut short by Alice had been raised by a lady and certain things even she was not brave enough to do. She would keep some level of propriety she knew that even if she didn't particularly want to.

And gods above she didn't want to.

And she didn't understand why these feelings were happening or where they were coming from or what the hell was going to happen next. These were the questions that you needed a mother for she thought bitterly. What she needed to do was sit down and not break down into tears at the thought of all these feelings. What she needed to was remain in control because if her control faltered for less than a second then she knew the aftereffects might be considered a tad unseemly.

But she wanted him.

Oh god did she want him.

Alice couldn't understand what it was about him though, she had known him for a day, a strange man in a strange land and yet there was something about him that made her feel for the first time in too long a time that she was safe. That she was free from prying eyes and whispers and the constant strain of pretending to be something she wasn't. She found it increasingly difficult for her mind to even consider letting him go once she used her wishes and she wasn't sure if she could even get back to her own realm never mind take him with her.

And wasn't it wrong? To keep him here with her when he might not even want to be with her even though she was seriously struggling with the idea of letting him go? Was it selfish? Was it a horrible thing to even be contemplating? Yes. Did she care?

No.

She forced herself to stop even as Cyrus bumped into her. For a second they were perfectly slotted together, and she could feel his trousers, and more importantly a very specific part of the male anatomy press against her backside. Without warning she was overcome with such a strong sense of arousal that it nearly knocked her to her knees. She wanted him, Cyrus with such a fierce longing that she knew if she turned around and saw his face head on then she wouldn't be able to control herself.

She closed her eyes. For Alice it felt like every bone in her body was on high alert and the closest she could ever come to being touched by a man was in that second where the two of them were pressed against each other. Then Cyrus took a step back, Alice opened her eyes and turned around and made some comment about hearing the stream in order to keep her voice steady and hoping against hope the desire that was stoked inside her stomach like a never ending flame didn't show on her face.

Instead there was a pool of cool water and the sounds of the rushing waterfall and Alice who could feel dirt and grime in every bone of her body, who could feel her blood boil with something so toxic that she wanted to strip off her clothes just to cool down did just that…

Well…not entirely just that. She did have some morals she would prefer to keep. Even if Wonderland was looser than a brothel in the East End of London on payday.

She stripped just to what she felt comfortable with and the sunk into the pool of cool water only realising two things afterwards. Cyrus had done the same and was now titling his own head back so that his hair could be cleaned. This position showed his long neck arching beautifully. Alice didn't even know a neck could move like that and she was suddenly overcome with the urge to do unspeakable things that she was sure even married women didn't do when alone with their husbands.

Or did they? Oh the whole thing was such a mess.

She knew her father had loved her mother passionately but after she had died Alice had given up on love when you looked at someone. This couldn't be that, the whole concept of soulmates, of finding the one ended rather rapidly in her eyes and she was not about to fall for it.

Perhaps she should have a word with Cyrus she thought. If he wanted to stay with her as she explored some more of this world before she said her final goodbyes to it then it was only fair that he be given the choice. She wondered if being a genie took all of his choices away from him and then she turned in the water and saw the gold bangles on his arms still locking him in chains to that bottle that Alice was beginning to hate.

He had yet to notice, it looked like the first time he had managed to clean himself in a long time as well and he was cheerfully ignoring her.

(she was wrong about that in so many ways-but more on that later)

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Cyrus had fallen asleep. That sight shouldn't be adorable but it was. Asleep he seemed to have years stripped away from him. He looked younger, his face smooth of all lines and worries and his hand curled around some spare grass as if he was reaching out to someone in his sleep. Alice eased the bottle out of the bag, the rabbit too it seemed had fallen asleep. She was lucky really that he had-that was another decision that needed to be made as soon as she had gathered herself-what to do with the rabbit.

Because the rabbit and Cyrus were inextricably linked. She knew she couldn't keep both of them no matter how much she wanted to. She had to choose weather or not to finally prove the existence of this world to her father or give him up altogether-for Alice knew that if she didn't return home with some kind of proof it was either marriage or the asylum. And she wasn't sure if she could stand the idea of either one.

So she slid the lid open of the bottle and stuck her hand in. She didn't need her magic mushroom once the tip of her finger brushed a blanket. It pulled out easily-magic was one of those things that Alice didn't know about or understand enough about to trust with any certainty and instead she decided to just simply close the lid on the bottle and all it's secrets and simply hope that she had not broken anything valuable in Cyrus's makeshift home.

Gently she draped the blanket over him. She had to give him-or whoever it was that had built this bottle some credit for the design. It might be small but even the blankets were edged in gold and intricate embroidery. Alice might not be interested in making a home showy for her neighbours like her father wished sometimes she was but even she had to admit that it was stunning.

She was just contemplating weather or not Cyrus would wake up (and by association be creeped out) if she brushed her hand through his hair (just to make sure it was drying out alright!) when she heard the same pitter patter of the clothes horse. She looked down. She was still in her skirt and silk corset and they were both soaked. No she needed something more practical-something that women in her world wouldn't wear and dare she even say it-something risqué.

She wanted to look appealing for the first time in her life.

Leaving Cyrus there she went to get some new clothes feeling more excited than she had done in a long time.

The clothes horse didn't have much by the way of goods. Either Alice could look (even in her liberal mind) like she wanted to be paid by the hour or she could look more like a man. In the end she went with some trousers brown and a bit tighter around her backside than she would have liked for climbing but as Alice didn't actually know what her body's best features were (only that she wanted to at least prove to herself that she had them) she had to make do, and a long flowing pink top that was one of the few on offer that didn't expose her breasts even if it was a bit too big. She decided to go with a brown belt to ensure it stayed on, paid the clothes horse with her other clothes so he could sell them on and then decided to use her stockings in order to buy a rabbit which she at least knew how to cook over a small fire.

Sometimes her previous experience in this place actually worked out well for her.

Staring down at the pot she made a decision there and then that whatever was going to happen would happen, she was not some stupid little girl to be pushed around in a corset and fancy dress and to be told what man she had to marry, she was a woman in charge of her own life and her own destiny and although she didn't know (not really) what this feeling was that she couldn't explain.

When Cyrus woke up she was going to ask him to stay with her, to explore this realm with her and she wondered if he would say yes.

She turned back to twist the spit hanging over the fire so the back of the rabbit could cook and she smiled to herself her face warmed by the fire as the man that she had a sinking feeling that she was falling in love with despite only meeting him two days ago slept peacefully, she would be given the answer she wanted alongside another brilliantly dimpled smile.

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 **Next chapter will focus on Cyrus as usual. I hope to keep this story as cannon as possible and therefore the story should tie in perfectly in line with the scene with the swords in 1x02.**

 **And let me know what you think. I will update soon. **


	5. Cyrus-In the Eye Abides the Heart

**Hello, here is another chapter, as i said before this is a multiple update taken after my exams and that is why the chapters are uploaded as one.**

 **I recently re-watched the series and a lot of the flashbacks especially with Alice and Cyrus are a bit mixed up so i wanted to put it a bit in order my own way so if somethings are a bit confusing then assume it's just artistic licence on behalf of me.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine just this little plot bunny.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

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If You Really Love Someone

Chapter 5-Cyrus-In the Eye Abides the Heart

 _Events-_ As Alice and Cyrus continue their adventures in Wonderland a comment passed between the two of them shows each other their past and what their future could have been and how they differentiate from each other.

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They had carried on walking for a long time, it had been days since the clearing and while they tried if they could to sleep with a roof over their head, nine times out of ten they were sleeping out in the open or on more than one occasion in the bottle that was hidden under a bush or a hedge and sharing tiny mouthfuls of the rapidly running out mushroom pieces that Alice over time had managed to snag.

Sleeping in the bottle however was becoming problematic or at least for Cyrus. There wasn't really much room in his bottle and his bed was a small area with a load of pillows and blankets and while he allowed Alice to sleep there while he took the nearest space to the cork door it was doing nothing for him because he found himself awake on more than one occasion shooting furtive glances at the woman who was sleeping who he had a feeling he was completely head over heels falling in love with.

It wasn't going to be hard when she eventually cast her wishes and she moved on and he was forced to serve another master or mistress. It was going to be _excruciating_. He knew that know. Alice was everywhere. She was in his very essence, she consumed his very soul and no this poetic speech wasn't the thoughts of a late night rambler. He had bitten his lip nearly to shreds. He knew the reasons why he shouldn't progress his relationship with Alice forwards. He knew that despite her taking her time someday she would use her wishes. And even before that she might decide to go back to her own world. And even if he could go with her (and it wasn't like he could because he had travelled realms before-that was nothing new) but either way she would use her wishes or she would be enslaved to a life with him at her side. Even Cyrus whose parents (while traditional on some values) had been slightly more liberal than some of the more conservative members of his village wouldn't have approved of him being at Alice's side while she eventually got married and had children with someone else.

And that was if his heart could take it.

Even if that didn't happen, the thoughts swirling inside his head still came back to the knowledge that eventually Alice would use her wishes.

And that gave him another conundrum to think about that if he was being really honest with himself he only ever thought about when he was alone and feeling really desperate with himself. What if she did want a relationship later on. Could he allow such a thing?

Cyrus was not blind nor was he not a human being. On more than one occasion he had indulged in being nothing but amusement for the occasion mistress. Actually if he was being honest he had indulged from time to time with a master-though it had never been physical. Perhaps Alice wanted that kind of relationship, where he was just a warm body for her bed at night, something she could use until she got board and wanted a man where she could have a future with. She had no guarantees with a genie who was constantly in danger of being hurt or killed simply because of what he was.

And then there was the same circle of distrust and despair that constantly ran around his head until he felt like he was going quite mad. He needed to sleep most times but when he did it was an uneasy sleep lulled only by the sounds of Alice breathing.

Gods he was truly pathetic. If either of his brothers could see him know they would never stop taking the piss out of him until the day he died. And even then the both of them would follow him to the afterlife in order to continue to amuse themselves.

Alice had told him she wanted to see some of the sights of Wonderland and Cyrus for all of his knowledge of other worlds knew very little about this one and strove to try and keep up with the strong and dependant woman that was currently marching ahead of him. They would stop at whatever shelter they could to find food but they still had quite a good haul of bread and cheese and ham from their previous find as well as some rather good wine that Cyrus decided they were saving for a special occasion…or when Alice left him and he needed to get blind drunk.

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They were heading this time to the Mellow-Marsh. It was something Cyrus had heard about once but had never actually seen and Alice was enchanted by the idea of melting sugar in a big pond with the fireflies surrounding them. They had chatted briefly about the last time she had been in Wonderland as a little girl but they had yet to discuss anything really personal when Cyrus decided to broach the subject as they worked their way through the undergrowth. The rabbit had long since gone and while Alice had been hesitant to trust that he would not tell any enemies…more specifically the Caterpillar and the Red Queen that he had heard so much about in so little time. They chatted amicably as they walked and on more than one occasion Cyrus got the distinct impression that Alice might have more tricks up her sleeve in terms of both proof and the ability to fight if cornered-than she was letting on.

"So what do you think your father will do once he sees whatever proof you will manage to sneak back?"

Alice paused and for one second Cyrus thought that he might have offended her but she shook her head and smiled. Damn, there went his heart again.

"I hope he will believe me. At the very least he can stop going on and on over dinner about how I need a husband to keep my wilfulness in check"

There was a pause as Cyrus tried to contemplate what she had just said. He had always grown up believing that regardless of what your parents wished you married for love really. Or you married and then love came later. He had never really seen a relationship much less a marriage that had not been based on love. Even in Wonderland where the rules were more different there was always a common thread of some kind of love in most families. His own had been filled with love regardless of the differences between his mother and his father.

"You don't want to marry for love?"

Stupid he chastised himself. Why the hell would he ask a question like that?

"Where I come from love is sometimes considered a strong anomaly." Alice replied. "Sometimes all you can get out of a marriage, is a nice house with some comforts, a cemented place in society and the love of your children. If you search in my world for love in a husband you might find yourself disappointed"

She said this in a monotone voice as if she was repeating something from a script that she had learnt by heart as a child. Cyrus blinked. He had travelled many lands that much was true but he had not travelled to the land without magic that Alice had described as her home. And now listening to some of the strange teachings it seemed to practice he found himself wondering why anyone would want to go back to a place that sounded so devoid of love or hope or…well…anything of importance really. He thought about what to reply to that and found that he couldn't. He didn't know how. How do you tell someone that is slowly becoming your everything that the one person she wants to return to doesn't deserve her if he thinks that she doesn't need love to be happy in life?

"I think that's wrong" he said finally. "I think if your lucky enough in this world to find love then you take it with both hands regardless of station or money"

Alice laughed. Again the sound was glorious and again the sound went straight to a certain part of his anatomy that most certainly did not need encouragement right now.

"I suppose your right Cyrus but…where I come, the Queen and Prince Consort that rule us…they are…very closed off. They like things a certain way and therefore so do English society. There are severe consequences in your community if you break these rules that were put in place for you and that's why my father is so keen to pretend that I am insane rather than opening his mind to the possibility that a place like Wonderland could exist"

Cyrus paused but in all honestly he didn't know what to say. What did you say to someone when their outlook on life was so bleak that in reality a place like Wonderland a paradox if ever their was one-looked like a safe haven.

Alice nodded at his silence as if it was confusing for her to understand just like it was for him.

"So what about you?" she asked. "Are your family still around?"

What was left of his heart-that he long thought was gone-gave a painful twitch. The ache that the disintegration of his family at his own hand had become over time nothing more than that. An ache. His mother was long dead by now, his two brothers into bottles and slaves to other people just like he was and his father had been dead and buried long before he could watch his youngest fuck up the rest of the family. The agony had dulled down over the years but the guilt…well…sometimes that hit him like a punch in the stomach over and over again whenever he least expected it.

"There's nobody left" he said finally trying not to remember the way his mother smiled or the crinkle in his father's eye and the way he and his two brothers would curl up when they were still young enough to share a bed on the floor of their little hut and their mother's magic was something to be celebrated from behind the safety of closed doors and not to be feared like when their father had died and she had been unable to break the laws of magic. Life it seemed had been so simple then and it was hard to believe that in eight years of his father dying his whole family had fallen apart.

Alice nodded her eyes dulled somewhat with sympathy. There was a long pause where the two of them stared at each other in the middle of the yellow spotted road that they were travelling on and then Cyrus had to pull himself away least he get lost in those damn eyes again and ruin the carefully constructed barriers that were in place for a damn good reason, no matter what his heart was telling him.

"Come on then" he said with a smile "Enough of the bad memories, let's make it to the Mellow-Marsh and you can have your first taste of marshmallow"

Watching Alice licking sticky marshmallow off her fingers would surely be a wonderful (and torturous) experience but when she did eventually leave him then these memories, the smile, the laugh, the way her body had once fit so perfectly against his own…well…they would be all that would keep him going. Cyrus honestly wasn't sure what the hell he wanted more-for her to use her wishes and end this torment or for her to never use them so they could stay in this limbo forever.

Alice smiled once a slow glorious smile and linked her hand through his arm.

"Come on" she said almost radiating happiness. "Let's go and have a look at this marshmallow thing you keep talking about" she dragged her eyes up from where they were looking at their hands linked together over his arms and then slowly looked at him. Cyrus felt his knees buckle. His father had always said in the eye abides the heart…well…if that was what he meant when it came to looking into Alice's eyes then it went without saying that he was now eternally sure that Alice over the course of a weak had completely _ruined_ him for any other woman.

 _Ever_.

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 **And let me know what you think please, the next chapter should follow from this one and will be in Alice's point of view.**

 **Also i am taking the view that Alice was alive during the time of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert due to dress and the way the characters acted in her past therefore i incorporated the values of the Victorians into this story as well as a little bit of historical context.**

 **This story will include a couple of scenes from 1x02 but please be aware that the dialogue will not be exactly the same so please keep that in mind. And again i had taken liberties with some of Cyrus's backstory but again that is on me, please enjoy.**


	6. Alice-Push the Pain Away

**Hi so here is another chapter. I am going to probably publish another one after this so let me know what you think.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine just this story.**

 **Also like i said in the last chapter the historical time and therefore some of Alice's views are based on the Victorian times. Also i know this scene didn't happen and might be a bit heated for some readers but i thought there was no way that that kiss scene in 1x02 had to be the only time.**

 **And let me know what you think.**

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If You Really Love Someone

Chapter 6-Alice-Push the Pain Away

 _Events-_ As Alice and Cyrus make camp for the night Alice makes a decision that might have long-lasting consequences for the relationship slowly forming between her and Cyrus.

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Looking back it was easily defined as a laughable moment. Something they could discuss between the two of them and laugh about when they were young and both so clueless about how the other one worked. When they could read each other like an open book it seemed so much easier to laugh at all of the stupid mistakes that had been made especially in light of what they had gone through both as a couple and as individuals during their stay in Wonderland. But right there and then it had hurt and all of those insecurities that she had been fighting against had come to the surface without warning and had viciously made Alice re-evaluate herself.

But the events that had taken place post this incident were not of concern. Right now the only thing that was of any real concern was that Alice for some unknown reason (but not really unknown) had decided to make a pass at the first man she found herself feeling anything towards…

But more on that later.

Alice and Cyrus had gone to the Mellow March and pitched up camp there for two days. They used the fireflies to cross into the middle of the Mellow March so Alice could try the softer sticker sugar that swirled in the middle. She didn't wait for the spoon that Cyrus offered her instead she decided to stick her fingers in, she had twirled her two fingers around the sticky goodness and then plunged them in her mouth with virtually no concept of ladylike behaviour she had been raised with. Instead she had moaned-a little bit like some sort of greedy child-around her fingers and had only realised that perhaps her behaviour might have been somewhat un-lady like when she had opened her eyes pulled her fingers from her mouth and noticed that Cyrus had crouched down next to her and was looking decidedly away.

"Sorry" Alice apologised grinning. "I err…I supposed I got carried away and I…I've never had something this nice before"

Cyrus smiled at her but there was something different about his eyes. It was almost like he didn't have any eyes, they had gone almost black with some unknown emotion. He swallowed harshly his throat bobbing and Alice watched wondering for a second what would happen if she reached out and touched the skin underneath his chin. That thought however was quickly turned around when he turned his head to see her effectively cutting off her view.

There was a pause where they stared at each other. They seemed to keep doing that Alice thought to herself. They seemed to keep staring at each other, catching each other in little moments and holding the gaze so that they could almost see into each other's soul. Or perhaps Alice was finally going mad. There was a reason why the Hatter was called…well the Mad Hatter. Wonderland had a funny way of destroying any sense of reality when you were inside for too long case in point how nothing had change for her and everything around her had changed when she had gone back to 1850.

"Don't apologise" Cyrus said standing up and wincing slightly. He held out his hand and Alice took it. It was getting pathetic at how desperate she was to touch him. Every time she touched him she found that she was almost sparking some kind of magic off him. As if their bodies knew that they should be touching more. It was foolish and it was dangerous and it should have been an inclination for Alice to stop, to not take things further than it seemed they already were but she did not. Which in hindsight was a very foolish thing to do.

She let go of his hand and then internally winced because there was no way that the action had not come across as a little strange.

Cyrus however did not seem to notice. Alice decided to not ponder on weather or not that was a good thing or a bad thing. Instead she decided to focus on getting back to the dry land covered in grass rather than getting knee deep in the sticky mess. It was all fun when you were eating melting marshmallow but the truth of the matter was it made a right mess. She hoped Cyrus had something that she could clean her hands with.

Once she had walked and on more than one occasion had to hop and skip over things she manged to gain securer footing and she sat down on a rock.

"I apologise Cyrus my behaviour with a handful of marshmallow was rather…unladylike."

There an apology that her mother would have been proud to hear her make.

Cyrus bent down so he was crouching next to her.

"You don't have to apologise to me Alice. One of the greatest things about Wonderland is that you never have to apologise for being anything other than yourself. Well…unless you run afoul of the Caterpillar and then you do have to be something your not"

Alice laughed. On more than one occasion she had ran into the feared dealer of Wonderland's darker secrets and she had seen what happened to people both when they worked for him and when they betrayed him. Either way she was glad she had managed to remain far abreast from the purple opium smoker.

"Well that was very good fun" she said trying to forget her apology. Cyrus grinned at her and there was something about his smile that made her feel infectious. And here she had believed that all the rumours about love sickness was just that…rumours made by silly little girls who read too many penny romance novels. Wow she had been wrong when it came to that hadn't she? She had been wrong about so much.

"Where do you think we should go next?" She asked pulling herself out of her thoughts standing up and then pulling her hand out of Cyrus's before she did something stupid.

(Not that that would stop her in the end)

She brushed some of the mess of the corner of her shirt and missed completely the look of dejection mingled with resignation on Cyrus's face when she had pulled his hand out of her own. She didn't know about the thoughts swirling in his head and the way his hand seemed to reach out to grab a lock of her hair that was coming loose before it was snatched back of it's own volition.

She really had to do something about that. Wasn't there a rumour coming over from Paris that a few of the actresses from the theatre were cutting it short?

"I need to find another hair tie when we get a chance" she said smiling. "I fear my hair is becoming a nightmare again. I should just cut the whole thing off into a bob-the kind you see in the newspapers from Europe, would make things a whole lot easier" she gestured with her hand to her chin but before she could let her hand rest by her side again she found it was grabbed by Cyrus his heavy ringed fingers pressing into her own as he crowded closer to her so that it felt like their whole bodies were pressed against each other. Alice blinked and then swallowed. She tried not to press back against him-she might be wilder than some girls but she was not a complete lovesick fool, despite the way she seemed to be acting around him. Instead she forced an expression on her face that she hoped was one of polite confusion.

"Don't do that" was all he said. "Don't cut your hair, Alice I don't think I could bare it."

There was something about the tone in his voice that stirred her heart and she found herself holding her breath when he reached out and touched one of the offending locks with the pad of his finger. The very air around them seemed to still, the birds, the crickets, everything seemed to come to a stand still as the atmosphere became thick with something unnameable. Alice was filled with something that was slowly rising up inside of her steadily pulsing through her veins, her blood, her very core. It took her a second to realise that it was desire and it was strong.

There was a second where she and Cyrus stared at each other and she realised that his hands were still wrapped around hers, they were close, so close in fact that she could count nearly every eyelash that framed his eyes the pupils of which she noticed were blown black as if the desire that was slowly stoking her was filling him with the same feeling. For a split second they stared at each other and then it happened.

Alice wasn't sure weather or not she was the one who had started it. But someone started it and soon enough their mouths were crashing down on top of each other. Cyrus mouth was on hers and they were kissing. Alice opened her mouth without even realising what she had done and she felt Cyrus's tongue probe her mouth. Her right hand came to his hair and her left wrapped around his shoulders to pull him closer and his own framed her hair and the small of her lower back as if he was as desperate for her touch as she was for his.

For a long time (or so it seemed) they were pressed up against each other kissing like it was their last moment in Wonderland. Alice had never felt like this of that she was sure, a desperation that was bubbling up inside of her and she thought to herself in that brief moment (where she found she was capable of thoughts, before Cyrus's mouth pulled away from hers only to attach itself to just under her chin pressing little butterfly kisses down her neck until he found a point that made her gasp and her arms tighten in his hair) that if Cyrus wanted to take her here and now on the floor…in the grass like some woman with no thought of a good marriage on her mind…then she would let him. She would go on her back happily as long as he kept kissing and touching her because every second that he was made her feel like she was burning up in the most pleasant way possible.

Alice tightened her hand in his hair and pulled and Cyrus gave a short gasp into her neck, she dragged his head back up so he could kiss her again but it was then that he stopped suddenly as if he had been doused in cold water.

"No" He said and his voice was rough and dangerous like sandpaper. He pushed himself back away from her and suddenly it was like Alice had been doused in cold water. Whatever moment they had, had between the two of them had been roughly ended and Alice found her body was cooling as well as her heart.

"Alice, I'm sorry that…that…shouldn't have…I shouldn't have…this…this…shouldn't have…stupid, gods this was stupid…Alice I'm sorry this shouldn't…cannot happen I...err…" And he looked around as if he wished he could be anywhere else. Alice started at him and she found suddenly that she was near to tears.

"I need a moment" she managed to croak out. Cyrus nodded looking utterly miserable-not that that was much help at this very minute but he turned and walked away. She waited until she could no longer hear his footsteps and then she dropped to the floor, shoved her sleeve into her mouth and burst into tears.

Alice wasn't a crier. She didn't cry easily hadn't cried when her father had disbelieved her, when he had wanted to send her away, not even when her mother had died-well…not really. But now she was sobbing like a child.

She had to pull herself together least Cyrus know what was going on. He didn't want anything with her that extended beyond the typical mistress-genie relationship and she had to respect that. She wiped her eyes and took a deep breath. She still had a realm to explore, she still had a home she didn't want to go back to and she still had three wishes that now she found that she wasn't completely against using. She just had to push the pain away.

Well Alice thought bitterly taking another deep breath and allowing herself a thought to her mother, to her home and how it had turned on her instantly, pushing the pain away had always worked before.

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 **Please Read and Review, as i say next chapter will be Cyrus's point of view.**

 **Enjoy.**


	7. Cyrus-Love will Tear us Apart

**Hi, so here is another chapter. This might be the last update before i go on holiday for two weeks so please keep that in mind. Also with the publishing of this chapter i can confirm that there are only going to be three chapters left. I may try and get another chapter done before i go away but that might be a bit unlikely.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.**

 **Please Read and Review and let me know what you think. Again all backstories are based on my own imaginings.**

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If You Really Love Someone

Chapter 7-Cyrus-Love Will Tear Us Apart

 _Events-_ Cyrus tries to contemplate what has just taken place and his relationship with Alice as he tries to figure out how to convince her to use her three wishes.

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For a moment, for a pure, blissful moment everything was perfectly aligned with each other. Alice was pressed up against him, her mouth on his, her hands in his hair and when she had pulled on the dark strands Cyrus's eyes had rolled back in his head and he had let out a filthy groan pressing his hand on the small of her back and then wondering if he could perhaps get away with lowering it to her backside so he could lift her up and feel her alongside every inch.

For one moment it was glorious, the two of them, his mouth on her neck and he could have taken it so much further…he was inches away from doing just that. From lying Alice down on the floor and letting her hands roam over more than his neck and face when a thought crossed his mind.

 _"_ _This is better than any wish I could have made"_

And that was when his traitorous brain reminded him of what he was doing.

And with that he had to stop. He had to stop kissing her, he had to stop touching her and he had to stop the hardness growing in his pants before it became noticeable and ruined everything. Because if she saw it and she reacted in any way like this kiss had been then he would be powerless to stop her.

So he had pulled away and stopped this from going further and Alice had asked for her minute alone so here he was five minutes away from where he left her shaking like a leaf with a combination of pain and arousal so strong he feared he might have to take himself in hand.

Which right now was both the very best and the very worst idea that he had ever had.

He had collapsed near the roots of the tree breathing in heavily trying to stop his hands shaking. Alice was some kind of drug it seemed. Cyrus had never partaken in any kind of drugs-both of his older brothers had dabbled in opium more than once but after a vomiting and singing incident at night Cyrus decided to not indulge-Alice was like what he had imagined opium to be like-addicting and looking at his hands, withdrawals from the very essence that was Alice were going to be a nightmare.

That was exactly why he had to stay away from her. Alice had to use her wishes at some point, even if she did pretend that she didn't want anything to do with them. Nine times out of ten everyone wished him away at some point and he found for the first time since he had met her that he wanted her to use her wishes. There was no point to dragging this out other than heartbreak for him that he knew would take a long time to get over. He had to let Alice go. There was no life for him if she stayed living some half kind of life while he pretended that he wasn't in love with her and each day he would wake up and wonder if today was the day that she was going to use her wishes and leave him in the cold aching for her touch.

Cyrus might be a masochist and he might deserve his punishment for his stupidity with that damn water but even he at his worst had a line that he did not think he had to cross and quite frankly that was it. He had earned his punishment-but he had not earnt that kind of torture. Best to rip of the bandage now and ensure that even though he imagined he would spend the rest of his days grieving Alice-he wouldn't spend his life in fear of her leaving him.

And she would he suspected move on. Even if she thought she had feelings for him now she was young and she deserved more than a genie who would never age tied to a bottle and constantly a target. Both of them would be, the memories of his last master before he came to Wonderland vivid in his mind. Someone was always going to be on the lookout for him and he knew that it was only going to get more worse.

So how to convince Alice to use her wishes? That…well…that was a problem he supposed for tomorrow. There had already been enough heartache today and he was sure his heart couldn't take another blow before it failed completely. He paused wondering what on earth he was going to say whenever Alice decided to join his company. As long as she held those wishes there was very little that he could but follow her. Magic being the pesky little thing it was but he could at least apologise for his actions. While that kiss might have involved the two of them there was the simple fact that he knew better and he should have stopped it the second it began and not taken his time to explore and lose himself in everything that was his travelling companion.

There was a rustling in the bushes and he turned to stand up brushing his hands on his pants relieved that any signs via his body, that he was still affected by the kiss had gone.

(Mentally and emotionally Cyrus knew that was another story)

* * *

Alice came through the trees. The only tell tale sign of emotion on her face were the red rims around her eyes-a tell tale sign that she had been crying and Cyrus felt like he had been kicked in the knees. He felt like sinking to the ground and begging for her forgiveness, but he supposed clutching onto her like that had been what had gotten him into this mess in the first place.

There was a pause where they stood looking at each other and then Cyrus looked away swallowed once and then forced himself to look at Alice whose gaze had never wavered from his.

"Cyrus I want to apologise for my behaviour" she said in a tone so formal it was like ice had slipped down his spine and into his belly. He had to swallow again harshly. "I shouldn't have taken liberties with you and I hope it doesn't ruin this friendship that has sprung up between us. I promise you that it will never happen again"

It was the finality of the way she said it that made Cyrus pause. He took a deep breathe and tried to keep his emotions in check. He found for some reason himself close to tears though he did not know why. Everything was ruined because of one moment of weakness. And either way Alice was going to leave him and he found that he couldn't bear with that despair.

This was more than some childish infatuation of that he was sure. He bit his lip and then nodded. If she wanted to keep him at arms length then that was better than he deserved. Stupid he thought to himself, he had lost the one bright spark in his day since…a long time ago and now all he wanted to do was curl up in a ball and let the whatever Gods still listening to him take him. But he couldn't let her think that this was her fault. All of the fault was on him. "Alice you don't have to apologise. I knew it wasn't a good idea and I instigated the kiss. Look, let's just…let's pretend…let's just…I'm sorry" he said helplessly.

Alice nodded once.

"Cyrus I want to go and see this Towering Tum-Tum Tree you spoke about yesterday" she said finally. "Can we go and see it tomorrow? I'm rather tired now and I think a good night's sleep will do us both a world of good"

Cyrus nodded. All he wanted to do if he was being honest with himself was just lie down and curl himself around the yellow blanket with the gold tassels that reminded him of the jacket that his father had once worn for special customs and occasions and pretend that the last five minutes had not taken place.

He could not regret the kiss. He would not regret the kiss.

"Alice" he said as Alice moved to unplug the bottle. "I…have you ever considered what you might want to do with your wishes?"

"Are you asking me to leave you?" Alice asked without so much as a pause in un-tugging the knot and looking up at him with a terribly bland expression.

"No" Cyrus said before he could stop himself. "Your wishes are your choice Alice. A genie cannot force someone to make a wish and I wouldn't want to do it anyway. I just…I just don't want you to have any regrets about using them."

"Because once the wishes are all gone you move on to another owner" Alice supplied.

"It's a lonely experience and I wouldn't wish it on anyone" Cyrus said quietly. Alice looked at him with a pointed expression. This was the closest he could get to telling her the reasons why they couldn't be together.

"Nobody chooses my life but me Cyrus. Not my father, not the rules in the society that I come from, not even you. You don't have to be unhappy forever. But…but I think we should draw the line under this if that's what you want. But I don't plan on going away anytime soon so whatever reason is stopping you from being happy I recommend that you try and find a way to move past it"

And with that she opened the top of the bottle popped a bit of mushroom she still had in her side pocket and then she slid into the bottle. Cyrus stared at her for a second. There was nothing to stop him from finding a safe hollow ground to hide the bottle and then slipping in with her as they had done so many times before. However there was also nothing stopping him from sleeping out in the open (other than the fact that it was a slightly chilly evening).

Cyrus considered the options. The Mellow-Marsh was probably one of the safest area's in Wonderland and there was already a nice little hollow under the tree that nobody would come across once covered in moss and twigs. He arranged it then took his own piece of mushroom and slid back into his bottle leaving the top open so they could slip back out again in the morning. Alice was already tucked in one corner of the bed having kicked off her boots and her stockings and now he could tell her shirt.

That was strange to say the least. But it did give Cyrus the perfect view of the creamy skin that he could have been so close to touching only hours ago if he had just allowed himself a split second of happiness.

Alice was braiding her hair. She turned to look at him with a rather pensive expression for a long time and she smiled once a brittle, hollow smile that didn't reach her eyes which were filled with a confusion and in the dark (unless Cyrus was reading it wrong and in all honesty he supposed he could considering the way his heart was still racing) longing.

"Good night Cyrus. In the morning I want to see you smile again" And then she turned over and laid her head down on his pillow smoothing her cheek against it to get comfortable. Cyrus nodded even though it was to himself (if all she wanted was a smile then he could give her that with ease even if he would have to pretend that his heart was not breaking) " Good night Alice" he said stripping off his boots and shirt.

He turned to stare at the hangings over head and wondered how he had managed to ruin this. That kiss…he still shivered at the thought of it, his lips numb and tingling and he remembered the way her hands in his hair had felt. He bit his lip again and turned over blinking back tears at the life he could have had with the woman he loved had he not been cursed to this fucking bottle.

If fate had been any kinder then the Guardian of the Well of Wonders would have just killed him there and then rather than let this love tear him apart, tear _them_ apart.

Because Cyrus knew enough to know that this was not some silly crush, the way he was feeling was not that of a lovesick boy barely out of the school room. Alice from London, England (or whatever that realm was called) was his true love, the woman the fates had told him he was to end up with, the only woman that had ever made him feel like this and the only woman who he imagined ever would.

And he couldn't have her because of his curse.

Yes, fate would have just been kinder to kill him.

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 **And again the events from the next chapter will be from Alice's point of view.**

 **Let me know what you think and i will try and update as soon as i can get back to a more relaxed updating time.**


	8. Alice-Summertime Sadness

**Hi, so here is another chapter. I did not believe that i would get another chapter published but here is another one. There are two more chapters left in this story and then this is finished but i do have more than a couple ideas for the Wonderland fandom so...**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.**

 **I do realise that this story is delving a bit into the AU side of things but the story will end with a cannon scene so the embellishment between the first scene in 1x01 and the scene in 1x02 where this story will end.**

 **I know i said it before but this will probably be the last chapter published before i am without wifi so enjoy all these updates and i will hopefully update with the final two chapters if i don't get them published with this update by some miracle.**

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If You Really Love Someone

Chapter 8-Alice-Summertime Sadness

 _Events-_ Alice and Cyrus have a massive row about their future as both friends and something more and after witnessing the Red Queen's troops for the first time Alice stands her ground and makes another decision that begins the build up to a very well-known scene.

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They had been walking for some time before Alice had decided that enough was enough. She was not some silly little girl who ran away from the first sign of trouble and she wanted to know what had gone wrong. She did not think she had read Cyrus and his feelings and his intentions the wrong way. In fact, she believed that he was just as invested in exploring this growing love between them (and she knew that was it was she wasn't completely naïve) but she also wanted to know what was holding him back from being happy-even if it wasn't with her she knew that Cyrus deserved to be happy. If anyone deserved a simple thing as happiness, then it was Cyrus.

But so help her if it was something stupid that could easily be fixed or a simple misunderstanding standing in the way of the two of them then Alice was going to murder him herself.

And as she had been told by many people many times (and in many various tones) her stubbornness was unparallel.

"Why don't you want to be with me?" She asked unable to stop herself and Cyrus turned to stare at her with wide eyes in shock and Alice could have kicked herself because she was trying to have a serious conversation here and her immediate response was to blurt out the question with as little tack as a carriage accident.

"Alice it's…" Cyrus looked like each word was costing him a part of himself but clearly, he had decided to man up and tell her the truth this time. He looked around wildly and then his eyes which were bleeding chocolate brown looked at her with a rather desperate expression. "It's not you it never was. It's me…always has been for years it's been me" He looked like she had just reached inside him and yanked hard at his insides until he was bleeding.

"I am a genie Alice, I am always going to be in service of a master and you say you don't want to use your wishes, at some point you will. I don't expect you not too and then we will be separated and the thought of losing you…well…I think despite only knowing you a short time that might kill me." He gave some sort of helpless little shrug but once he had started talking it was like he couldn't stop even as his voice took on a self-deprecating kind of tone.

"Alice I…even if you wanted to stay with me it couldn't be a life…not the one you deserve. I am a slave to something far too powerful and I'm constantly going to be hunted down by anyone who wants to use me for their own good. The thought of hurting you…" he shook his head but Alice remained silent even as he looked down at his hands.

"And It cannot be a real life. Not like that…but…Alice I'm going to be alive for as long as I'm a slave to this bottle while you grow old. Even If I could give you children…which I'm not sure I could you and the child would grow old and die and I would remain younger and younger and then sent on my way before I even had a chance to bury you, before I could even say goodbye. You have to understand it's not you it's me. There is no long term life I could give you."

He hung his head then his shoulders shaking and Alice realised with a sick feeling in her stomach that not only was what he saying so sickeningly true but that he was crying because he knew that the life he wanted so bad couldn't happen.

She dropped to her knees unflinching as the cold mud hit bare skin and wrapped both her arms around him pulling him off the rock he had sat down on at some point and clutching him too her. He sobbed into her shoulder, into her hair and Alice clutched him back letting him mourn what he wanted but couldn't have.

Finally, as she was stroking her fingers through his hair he stopped. He leaned his head against her neck for a second longer, his breath making her shiver, it was as if he was drinking her in so that she realised with what felt like a punch to the gut he could remember her when time eventually tore them apart even if the genies magic did not.

She suddenly hated with a passion whomever had cursed him to such a life. How could someone like Cyrus deserve something like this? These were the questions that were running around her head as he laid there on her shoulder for a time until Cyrus pushed off and wiped his eyes furiously.

"Cyrus it doesn't meant that we cannot be together" she tried to say even though she knew the odds were overwhelmingly against them. Cyrus gave a laugh and reached out, so the pads of his fingers were brushing against her cheek. There was a pause where they sat there and stared at each other and Alice knew her eyes were filling with tears at the hopelessness of the situation.

"I know but…Alice it took me lifetimes to meet you and only seconds to love you and I know it will take me more than a lifetime to get over you"

She should be cheering she thought to herself. She should be cheering over the words she had wanted to hear so desperately but instead her heart was breaking all over again.

"Do you want me Cyrus?" she said finally. Cyrus gave out a bark of laughter that was filled with a combination of awe and incredulity and pain so much pain that Alice had to wipe her eyes again because she was on the cusp of getting everything she wanted and yet she was being presented for very reasonable reasons why she couldn't have it.

"Alice, I want you more than anything" Cyrus said smiling as if it was painfully obvious even though his eyes were bright with pain. "And I may hate myself for being the way I am now, but I will not put myself through the pain of losing you because I do not think that I will recover"

Alice stood up looking down at him feeling her temper rise and she bit her lip.

"We could live in the moment you know. We could just stay here and live and enjoy our time together, if it's a choice between you and the wishes then I'm going to choose you. I know it sounds insane but…but…I think…I want you to take a chance on us Cyrus. Because I feel the same way that you do and…Gods this is coming out all wrong" she said shaking her head and running her hands through the strands. Why the hell did she not just cut this?

"Alice" Cyrus said standing up and taking her hands and pulling it out of her hair so that they were linking fingers like a happily married couple in love, the kind she'd see in London who couldn't keep their hands off each other. Instead this felt like a goodbye.

"Let's just be happy, be happy Cyrus. You deserve it and…and we can see what happens"

Cyrus leaned her forehead against hers for a second and Alice thought that had they not been interrupted then she might have won him over. She might have held him in her arms as they planned for a future together that did not involve looking towards a future that for both of them was complicated. Alice herself did not know what was going to happen, if she was going home to England-if she wanted to go home to England, to her father and too her life where everything was based on a lie, of the ideal of a perfect family that she had not had in so long. Either way she had let the rabbit go and therefore she had to find some new proof that she wasn't mad or her last living relative was going to demand that she go to an asylum to live out the rest of her days.

"Let's just be happy" she whispered again and for a second, she saw him smile the half smile he gave whenever something was so unbelievable he didn't think that he could get it. Alice knew the feeling intimately. Instead there was a rustling in the bushes and the sounds of tree branches and twigs snapping in a way that Alice knew intimately told her that people and more than one was, coming in their direction.

Cyrus held her hand and then placed a finger to his lips indicating that they had to be quiet and then he picked up the bottle and the two of them crept through the bushes until they were a suitable distance away from the noise, but they could still see what was going on. Alice saw them, the red livery and the black tunics and knew at once who they were dealing with.

And judging by the look on Cyrus's face he too knew intimately who they were dealing with.

It was the Red Queen's guards.

And they were looking for someone.

For one wild moment Alice thought it might be the Knave before she remembered that he had gone back to his old world and she had come back here. Also there was no way a sighting of the Knave would mean soldiers walking quietly through the forest as if they didn't want to be heard. No they were looking for someone else. Alice turned to face Cyrus who had his face screwed up in a look of concentration and then he turned to jerk his head in the opposite direction so that they could edge their way through the undergrowth without being seen.

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They made it back onto the path and down the road silently until they were out of the forest and back along the edge of towns. If Alice remembered correctly there was a very good chance that most of the towns would help people hide from the Red Queen's guards even if the punishment was getting severe. She had not, Alice knew, done much by way of ruling her people and the Good Lord only knew what she was getting herself involved in now.

"There looking for me" Cyrus said finally as they were walking down the road and the sound of laugher could be overheard. He had shoved his bottle into her bag and for all the world they looked like young lovers simply taking a country stroll.

"That's what I'm trying to tell you about Alice. You will never be safe as long as you are with me. You cannot defend yourself from the Red Queen's guards even if you do fight well enough. I told you being a genie is a lot like being a wanted man. Everyone wants you and sometimes they don't have the means to take you and sometimes they do. And the easiest thing that you can do is get the hell away from me"

"What do you mean?"

Cyrus paused. "There's a man Alice. He killed my last master and I only managed to get away and…Alice I think he has magic I didn't get a good look at him but even if he doesn't he can fight and he can fight well…"

Well Alice thought stopping in the middle of the yellow road and thinking hard. If defending herself was one of the things that was holding Cyrus back then she could fix it. There was a pause where Cyrus looked at her with that resigned look as if he knew that she was already going to run, and Alice wanted to hunt down whomever had etched that look on his face and hurt them for it.

"If it's self-defence I need" she said eyeing his sword. "Then I suppose you better get me another one of those. Because your going to teach me how to defend myself and then we are going to have a long talk and so help me if you try and find a way out of it"

And with that she stormed off down the road her mind fresh with purpose. She didn't notice the look on Cyrus's face the amused look mixed in with the love he had admitted to her that he had tried to pretend didn't exist or couldn't exist.

But she did hear the "Wouldn't dream about it" that he uttered and Alice smiled to herself as she carried on walking down the road back into the woods so she could learn some semblance of sword fighting and perhaps if she was lucky finally…finally get the one thing that she had spent her entire life searching for.

Love.

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 **And again the next chapter will be from Cyrus's point of view and it will be the last one that i publish from his perspective. **

**Enjoy.**


	9. Cyrus-Sanctuary

**Hi, so I've worked really hard to finish the final five chapters and after too many nights where i should have been sleeping after my work shift i finished these chapters. i hope you enjoy this the ones before this and the one coming after.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine however some quotes are borrowed from episode 1x02**

 **Please read and review.**

 **Also this story is a bit AU so if your looking for a stickler cannon based on the scenes in OUAT In Wonderland then your probably should have stopped reading this story at Chapter One. Just covering all of my bases.**

 **And let me know what you think**

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If You Really Love Someone

Chapter 9-Cyrus-Santuacry

 _Events_ -Cyrus teaches Alice to defend herself leading to Alice taking another move that sees their relationship move forwards-Part One of a Two part finale to this story.

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Cyrus woke up the next morning his arms aching slightly. Alice it seemed had fallen asleep on his arm and the whole appendage had gone numb. As it turned out she had curled one leg around his hip and her knee was brushing another part of his body that was certainly not numb. He swore in his head and stood up wincing at the feel of the aching flesh as he tried to pull his arm loose. Alice thankfully did not wake but Cyrus winced a little as he leaned his head back against the grass and thought over what happened.

Alice had spent the whole of the day learning how to wield her sword. She seemed to have a good grasp of how to thrust forwards and open herself up to attacks, her technique was somewhat sloppy, but it was improving, and her defences were now constantly raised which he knew from experience was a good thing. She was capable of defending herself against any attackers and she was also now capable of striking a blow, but it seemed she was not capable of killing. She had not said anything about leaning how to part a man's head from his body and Cyrus personally didn't think that he wanted to teach those kind of moves to her either. Alice had fallen asleep on his shoulder next to him when she had leaned against him after their dinner of slow cooked rabbit stew. He had used some of the gold to buy a chocolate pastry that they had shared-upon seeing Alice's eyes light up when he had seen the treat he couldn't help but use some money to buy it for her.

It was half in order to please her, half in calculation because when he saw her moan around the treat and then lick the sauce of her fingers the blood rushed to his groin so strongly it almost made him pass out. There was a second where he was sure that not only was she doing it on purpose but where he wanted to lean across and take the damn cake out her hand and press her back against the grass convinced that the chocolate would taste so much better when he kissed her.

He was fucked.

His reasons Cyrus thought that he had told Alice that he believed where strong and reliable where slowly falling apart and there was nothing that he could do about it. Slowly bit by bit, day by day she was chipping away at his resolve and it was becoming more and more difficult to say no to her and last night when she had sat down and curled her legs under her in her brown trousers and wiped the sweat from her forehead as she tucked her hair upwards into a knot so that there were only a few strands falling in her face Cyrus had honestly had to dig his fingernails into his trousers to stop himself from touching her in more than one inappropriate way.

His resolve was crumbling now his cards were all on the table. He was in love with Alice probably had been from the second he had seen her, and it was clear that she was in love with him because she had told him, and Cyrus did not believe that she was capable of telling a lie like that. She clearly did not want to talk about using her wishes or her future, but she wanted to live in the moment, in the magic with him and he found he could not think of a reason to deflect this ordinary common sense from an extraordinary woman.

Instead he had fallen asleep with her head on his chest a blanket wrapped around them and the starts surrounding them the bottle hidden from view while he tried to imagine the two lives that were placed in front of him. Both had their pro's, both had their cons, and both were clear cut and clean. Both would change his life forever because Cyrus knew intimately that the life he had had before Alice was gone to him forever and he was never going to live like that again.

So, he lay there wrapped up with the woman he loved, the bottle that he was cursed to bumping against his leg and too all the world he knew they looked like young lovers, newly married and unable to keep their hands off each other. The Gods knew that it was not a strange occurrence in Wonderland and he all he wanted was for it to be true.

One option was extremely good for him. He could choose to live with Alice in the moment. He could choice to be with her no matter what the cost was and he could be happy. They could even lose his bottle and all tying it to him would be Alice's wishes and if he made her his wife then nobody would know that she was the keeper of them. He could lie. He could live…he could have something resembling the life that his stupidity had cost him once upon a time ago. For he knew intimately that if Alice had ended up in his world…in Agrabah then he would have asked Alice to marry him and by now they would have had their own house surrounded by his family and they would have been happy.

And then there was another option and that was a bad option for him. He could leave. He could force Alice to use her wishes, he could be a bastard and wrap his heart, his broken, bleeding, icy heart in stone and ensure that she never got a chance to break it, but he knew he could do that. It had nothing to do with what was smart it was more to do with the fact that immortal or not…dead or not…if he was a bastard to a woman his father would find a way to make him pay for it.

And he didn't want to. This was Alice. He wanted to be with her.

So, when he woke that morning and saw Alice twisting her hair back of her face, so she could twirl around fighting him he made a decision. He wanted to be with Alice, or at least he if he didn't screw it up royally before with his attitude then he wanted to ensure that he did this right. If Alice gave him an opening that meant that he was welcome then he was going to take it with open arms and try and build a life even if it was built on a house of cards that could come tumbling down without warning at any day with any reason.

Alice turned to face him and smiled.

"Ready?" she asked and Cyrus nodded feeling like his throat was made of sandpaper. He could not screw this up again. He would talk to her after their training and see if he could be granted a reprieve and a shot at a sanctuary that wasn't his bottle.

* * *

They sparred with various degrees of success. Alice was a quick learner he would give her that and she was strong and easy to succeed at this endeavour and Cyrus ultimately was loathe to hurt her in any way because that wasn't who he was. He found himself toning down his skills somewhat and that was really not going to help him because in real life one of the Red Queen's soldiers or an agent of the Caterpillar would not be so generous if they picked up on a moment of weakness.

Instead he ducked a blow and carried on until they were near the tree packing her into it. Alice grinned showing her teeth and that smile. It was a combination of that look in her eyes and that feral kind of grin that made him want to do nothing more than push her further against the tree and carrying on that kiss that he had long ago interrupted.

"So Alice" he said beaming. "What now?" Of course the voice in his head supplied there were several things they could do that didn't involve using two swords to pin her to a tree. Several pleasurable things that he could use. But before he could give way to these thoughts Alice had grinned her eyes becoming wider and more innocent in a way Cyrus just knew was going to come back and hurt him in some clever way that he would not see coming.

"Well I think I know my opponent" Alice said her voice taking on that teasing tone even if her eyes still had that almost hungry look in them that made his stomach turn to knots that would take several days to unravel. "And I think I know his weakness" she said pulling him out of his rather good thoughts. He tilted his head to one side refusing to give in until the last second.

"Really?"

"I hope so" Alice said and then she kissed him. It was the opening he had been waiting for, had been praying for. He dropped his swords to the ground with a clatter and wrapped both arms around her waist tucking her closer to him as her hands framed his face. He turned as her arms roved greedily over his body and she pushed him to the floor pulling back once she had straddled him (and Gods above there was nothing more sexier than that-and he had dreamed about quite a lot over the last couple of months he knew) she pulled back her hair falling over her face and a confused expression etched upon it.

"I thought you didn't want this…I thought that…that you had reasons? I had a whole thing planned to dismantle bit by bit. If I did not die of…of…sexual frustration first" she said the last bit in a rush and Cyrus could see that the prim and proper Victorian girl had struggled to say the world sexual anything and didn't that do wonders for a man's self esteem. To know that he was burning Alice up in the same delicious heat that he had been suffering for too long.

"My apologies" he said finally and he meant it. He was apologising for a lot of things here as well and he knew that she knew the main one was not believing that he deserved someone like her. He still did not if he was being honest with himself but he wanted to believe and that was some sort of an improvement.

"You want me?" Alice said titling her head to one side as if she was placing her final card on the table. Cyrus nodded unable to put it into words. Alice looked at him as if she was making a decision and then she flipped them over so that he was on top of her and her legs were wrapped around his waist.

"Then take me" she said finally. Cyrus stared at her feeling his eyes and something else noticeably widen and harden. He swallowed his mouth suddenly feeling very dry and then he turned to look down at her.

"Alice are you…" he began to ask but she cut across him her hands coming to his hair and doing that little pull that made his eyes roll back in his head and his hips slam downwards so that it caused the most delicious friction that he had ever experienced in his life.

"Cyrus if I didn't want you to make love to me here on the ground then I wouldn't have asked you. I'm tired of being some good little girl that does what she's told and has to conform because if she doesn't then she's of to the asylum. I want to be loved, I want to be loved by you and I am burning with need for you. Please…"

And then she snuck her hand down and…

Well Cyrus was a man after all and he was also human.

"You are my sanctuary" he said in between kissing. "You, not the bottle, not Wonderland…you"

"Good" Alice said her laugh turning into a moan as he decided to suck a bruise on her neck. "Because I have a plan for that dratted bottle too"

Cyrus laughed into her neck. "Of course you do" he muttered into her skin breathing in Alice's very essence.

And they carried on locked in their own little sanctuary.

* * *

 **Enjoy. Final chapter should be following this one and it will be in Alice's point of view. **


	10. Alice-Wonderland Story

**Hi, so here is the final chapter, i want to thank all of you for reading and reviewing this story. This means a lot to me and i promise you that after a short break i will be back because my Wonderland muse is far from dead.**

 **I appreciate all of you and i thank you for being patient with me as i get the final five chapters posted**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.**

 **Please Read and Review**

* * *

If You Really Love Someone

Chapter 10-Alice-Wonderland Story.

As we come to the end of this little story and another one that's well known begins Alice reflects on her time with Cyrus and what lies ahead. Part Two of a Two part finale to this story.

* * *

Alice was still breathless an hour after the fact. She had just become a lover to a man. She had lost her virginity to a man that was not her husband. She had to admit that she was breathless not only with the whole experience but with her own daring. She couldn't imagine a better way even if she was stuck in a magical world to hurt her father, to hurt the world she lived in where if you were a woman to be respected it meant you had to be meek and quiet and not share an opinion on politics or what was going on in the world or what change could be. Alice never wanted to go back to that life. Regardless of her love for her one remaining parents she found she was truly home here with Cyrus wrapped in his arms the scent of him on her skin and the feel of his hands and his kisses burning her skin.

It was for lack of a better word…magical.

Cyrus had taken her tenderly and with a lot more gentle…movements than the horror stories she had overheard. It had been slightly painful she would admit but then there had been wave after wave of pleasure that had climaxed in her going over the cliff in terms of emotions and feelings and…pleasure. She had clutched Cyrus's broad naked shoulders and when she had opened her eyes again she had seen a look on his face that made her feel warm and loved and almost glowing with the need to feel loved.

He had gone into his bottle and brought out blankets and they had wrapped themselves up still naked in the firelight and made love at least twice more before she had fallen asleep in what could arguably be called the best sleep of her entire life.

She found she could understand what it must have been like for her father to lose her mother and never recover. She could understand the Queen and Prince Albert's devotion to each other and the devotion that was shown between other people that she had seen. She was struggling to understand how people could spend their rest of their lives with other people and had long lives without sharing this feeling. She didn't understand how people could marry for any reason other than this feeling. This was worth it's weight in gold and far more and Alice was pretty sure now she'd had a taste of this love that she was going to become a slave to it. Already she and Cyrus were having a hard time keeping their hands off each other and he was a patient teacher that delighted in teaching her the many different ways that you could have pleasure and experience pleasure so much so that Alice was getting bolder and bolder with her acts in a way that even when she had been wild as a young woman she would have never tried whatsoever.

* * *

They spent their days walking through the sights of Wonderland. A part of Alice was desperate to see the boiling sea and another part of her was desperate to see the cloud mountains which were mountains where even the bottom of them were obscured in the clouds and she wondered what it was like to be hidden in them were nobody could see you. They had not spoken about what it was that they would do once the fog of lust evaporated and if she was being honest she did not really want to know. She wanted to stay like this for the rest of her life pretending that nothing would happen.

But that was a dream in a dream. Alice had already overheard from Cyrus who had come back from town one day that more and more of the Red Queen's guards were in the vicinity and that they were looking for the genie. Cyrus's magic as weak as it was, was doing a great job and managing to keep them safe but he couldn't keep up a cloaking spell for long nor could he keep them safe forever. Something was coming for them and Alice knew that it was going to catch up with them sooner rather than later but she had asked that they live right here and now in the living rather than worrying around their future and so she did not want to complain. Instead she wanted to drink up each and every moment that she was with him.

Cyrus and her were heading back to the maze. There were lots of places that they could hide the bottle. They were going to swing by the Caterpillar's opium mushroom and Alice who was an anonymous thief by trade unlike Cyrus who was noticed even if you took out the genie factor would be seen. They had been gathering supplies for weeks now and Alice believed that they had at least a weeks worth of food and water in order for them to shrink and remain in complete secrecy buried under a maze in a maze in a bush.

This was like she supposed to herself her honeymoon moment. Somehow she didn't think that Cyrus was going to propose. He had looked years younger than he had when he met her but still sometimes she could see the look on his face whenever he was thinking about the ghosts that he didn't want to share. She too had ghosts, her mother and father were tangible memories that she did not want to touch and she found that she was struggling to remember what Victorian England was like. She had stayed awake for the whole night trying to figure out how she felt about that and then she decided that she didn't care. Her mother was dead and her father was as good as dead because he had not believed in her and when Cyrus looked at her across from the fire or the bottle he would see the warm delicate look that Cyrus sent her and it would send her thoughts spiralling away from her old home and her own life.

"You deserve to be loved" Cyrus told her one night as they lay together her legs entangled with his and his head on her chest. She was stroking his hair and his eyes were closed and there was a self satisfied look on his face like he was a contented cat curled in front of the fire. It was completely endearing and made her heart swell with love for him. "You deserve to be loved for who you are and if your father cannot do that then stop thinking about him and I will do all the loving for you"

Alice had laughed then and had kissed him and that had turned into something that was far more pleasurable. Safe and sound in the bottle they were locked in their own little world and when she fell asleep listening to the pitter patter of rain hitting the leaves and then the bottle Alice felt warm and loved and needed.

"You deserve to be loved as well" she would tell Cyrus and he would smile and even if the smile did not meet his eyes he seemed lighter and happier than Alice had seen him as if he had finally given into the one thing that he had so desperately desired and to hell with the consequences. There in the bottle for that week she had become she knew a woman who knew what it was to be loved, to be free, to be her own person. It was a radical change she knew from where she had been when she had climbed back into the rabbit hole in her garden desperate to find some proof that she had not imagined everything.

* * *

After that glorious week they continued on with their travels. They once again went to the Mellow-Marsh because Alice had completely and utterly enjoyed that experience and wanted to go there again this time when she did not have to fight her feelings for the man standing next to her. Cyrus had then suggested they go and see the Towering Tum-Tum tree and again they spent a week their taking shelter in the shades and the peaceful surroundings.

They stayed on the outskirts avoiding places ran by both the Caterpillar, the Red Queen and her guards as well as the ever increasing off putting presence that came whenever they were in a town for too long. She was beginning to understand what Cyrus had said when he had first told her that being a genie was a little bit like being a wanted man. Alice had underestimated how powerful her lover was in terms of the Wonderland black market and she found herself clutching him a little bit tighter whenever they had left a town just because the thought of losing him was… _unbearable_.

But nothing could puncture this bubble that she was in and she was sure that Cyrus felt the same. Each second felt a little bit lighter whenever she was with him.

Alice never wanted this to end.

Ever.

* * *

One morning she had woken up and looked out over the rim of the bottle. They had taken refuge half in a hole that Cyrus had dug and then they had taken the magic mushroom and shrunk so that they could have a decent place to sleep. The weather was getting colder-even Wonderland had winter after all-and sometimes it was something as simple as warmth that sent them into each other's arms clutching at each other with the simple hunger that came when two people were in love and couldn't stop themselves.

Whenever she thought about it though she was more than a little amused and somewhat annoyed by the sappy thoughts that she had and the way she might have been acting. She had never wanted to become one of those soppy little girls who dreamt of their future husband as some white knight that just got off the horse with a shining sword-or whatever the stupid analogy was. But there was something about this courtship that had turned into a relationship that had changed her for the better or for the worst.

"Better" Cyrus said one night when he was watching her scrub herself down. They had found a creek and took water and Alice had her clothes in one bucket and was naked scrubbing herself down in order to clean herself up. Cyrus was watching her over the book he was supposed to be reading and Alice noted the half lidded eyes and the way his pupils had expanded with barely concealed desire.

She put down the cloth and moved over so that she was in front of her and she noted the way the book fell from his hands and the way the smile on his face became more lust filled and more the smile that Alice knew would grant her pleasure.

"You think? You do not believe that I am turning into some kind of soppy girl who other people would mock?"

"No" Cyrus said grinning as his hands found her hips and hers found the buttons on his shirt. "I think you're a woman in love"

Alice laughed with joy even as he pressed kisses in the side of her neck.

"I want to go and see the boiling sea one day" she said as Cyrus nodded into her neck as she finally got that damn shirt off and she could press their skin together.

"I know. I promise you we'll go soon. But now I've got other things to do"

Alice laughed once even as Cyrus picked her up and carried her back to the mess of furs that was their bed.

And with that they carried on enjoying a small remembrance of their perfect Wonderland Story.

* * *

 **And i hope you enjoyed this little story as much as i enjoyed writing it. Again i thank you all x**


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